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Scouts Train to Fight Terrorists, and More

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
So, now we have "Organization for America", the "National Civilian Community Corps.", ACORN and the Dept. of Homeland Security providing special "training" to nation's youth.

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May 14, 2009
Scouts Train to Fight Terrorists, and More
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER

IMPERIAL, Calif. — Ten minutes into arrant mayhem in this town near the Mexican border, and the gunman, a disgruntled Iraq war veteran, has already taken out two people, one slumped in his desk, the other covered in blood on the floor.

The responding officers — eight teenage boys and girls, the youngest 14 — face tripwire, a thin cloud of poisonous gas and loud shots — BAM! BAM! — fired from behind a flimsy wall. They move quickly, pellet guns drawn and masks affixed.

“United States Border Patrol! Put your hands up!” screams one in a voice cracking with adolescent determination as the suspect is subdued.

It is all quite a step up from the square knot.

The Explorers program, a coeducational affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America that began 60 years ago, is training thousands of young people in skills used to confront terrorism, illegal immigration and escalating border violence — an intense ratcheting up of one of the group’s longtime missions to prepare youths for more traditional jobs as police officers and firefighters.

“This is about being a true-blooded American guy and girl,” said A. J. Lowenthal, a sheriff’s deputy here in Imperial County, whose life clock, he says, is set around the Explorers events he helps run. “It fits right in with the honor and bravery of the Boy Scouts.”

The training, which leaders say is not intended to be applied outside the simulated Explorer setting, can involve chasing down illegal border crossers as well as more dangerous situations that include facing down terrorists and taking out “active shooters,” like those who bring gunfire and death to college campuses. In a simulation here of a raid on a marijuana field, several Explorers were instructed on how to quiet an obstreperous lookout.

“Put him on his face and put a knee in his back,” a Border Patrol agent explained. “I guarantee that he’ll shut up.”

One participant, Felix Arce, 16, said he liked “the discipline of the program,” which was something he said his life was lacking. “I want to be a lawyer, and this teaches you about how crimes are committed,” he said.

Cathy Noriego, also 16, said she was attracted by the guns. The group uses compressed-air guns — known as airsoft guns, which fire tiny plastic pellets — in the training exercises, and sometimes they shoot real guns on a closed range.

“I like shooting them,” Cathy said. “I like the sound they make. It gets me excited.”

If there are critics of the content or purpose of the law enforcement training, they have not made themselves known to the Explorers’ national organization in Irving, Tex., or to the volunteers here on the ground, national officials and local leaders said. That said, the Explorers have faced problems over the years. There have been numerous cases over the last three decades in which police officers supervising Explorers have been charged, in civil and criminal cases, with sexually abusing them.

Several years ago, two University of Nebraska criminal justice professors published a study that found at least a dozen cases of sexual abuse involving police officers over the last decade. Adult Explorer leaders are now required to take an online training program on sexual misconduct.

Many law enforcement officials, particularly those who work for the rapidly growing Border Patrol, part of the Homeland Security Department, have helped shape the program’s focus and see it as preparing the Explorers as potential employees. The Explorer posts are attached to various agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and local police and fire departments, that sponsor them much the way churches sponsor Boy Scout troops.

“Our end goal is to create more agents,” said April McKee, a senior Border Patrol agent and mentor at the session here.

Membership in the Explorers has been overseen since 1998 by an affiliate of the Boy Scouts called Learning for Life, which offers 12 career-related programs, including those focused on aviation, medicine and the sciences.

But the more than 2,000 law enforcement posts across the country are the Explorers’ most popular, accounting for 35,000 of the group’s 145,000 members, said John Anthony, national director of Learning for Life. Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, many posts have taken on an emphasis of fighting terrorism and other less conventional threats.

“Before it was more about the basics,” said Johnny Longoria, a Border Patrol agent here. “But now our emphasis is on terrorism, illegal entry, drugs and human smuggling.”

The law enforcement posts are restricted to those ages 14 to 21 who have a C average, but there seems to be some wiggle room. “I will take them at 13 and a half,” Deputy Lowenthal said. “I would rather take a kid than possibly lose a kid.”

The law enforcement programs are highly decentralized, and each post is run in a way that reflects the culture of its sponsoring agency and region. Most have weekly meetings in which the children work on their law-enforcement techniques in preparing for competitions. Weekends are often spent on service projects.

Just as there are soccer moms, there are Explorers dads, who attend the competitions, man the hamburger grill and donate their land for the simulated marijuana field raids. In their training, the would-be law-enforcement officers do not mess around, as revealed at a recent competition on the state fairgrounds here, where a Ferris wheel sat next to the police cars set up for a felony investigation.

Their hearts pounding, Explorers moved down alleys where there were hidden paper targets of people pointing guns, and made split-second decisions about when to shoot. In rescuing hostages from a bus taken over by terrorists, a baby-faced young girl screamed, “Separate your feet!” as she moved to handcuff her suspect.

In a competition in Arizona that he did not oversee, Deputy Lowenthal said, one role-player wore traditional Arab dress. “If we’re looking at 9/11 and what a Middle Eastern terrorist would be like,” he said, “then maybe your role-player would look like that. I don’t know, would you call that politically incorrect?”

Authenticity seems to be the goal. Imperial County, in Southern California, is the poorest in the state, and the local economy revolves largely around the criminal justice system. In addition to the sheriff and local police departments, there are two state prisons and a large Border Patrol and immigration enforcement presence.

“My uncle was a sheriff’s deputy,” said Alexandra Sanchez, 17, who joined the Explorers when she was 13. Alexandra’s police uniform was baggy on her lithe frame, her airsoft gun slung carefully to the side. She wants to be a coroner.

“I like the idea of having law enforcement work with medicine,” she said. “This is a great program for me.”

And then she was off to another bus hijacking.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/us/14explorers.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Many law enforcement officials, particularly those who work for the rapidly growing Border Patrol, part of the Homeland Security Department, have helped shape the program’s focus and see it as preparing the Explorers as potential employees. The Explorer posts are attached to various agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and local police and fire departments, that sponsor them much the way churches sponsor Boy Scout troops.

I've seen many Jr. Police and Cadet programs over the years- and they are great programs...Not only put many kids on the road to law enforcement careers- but bring some borderline ones back from the far side- convince them of the importance of training and an education- and set them on a new direction for their lives...
And in emergency situations they were/could be utilyzed to bolster manpower needed in non hazardous areas....
 

Mike

Well-known member
Hitler initiated a program to indoctrinate kids. It worked wonderfully well. Several of his High Ranking SS Officers went through his "schools".

The whole program's being suspect depends on what and how they are taught. No one can look at this from afar and say it is a good thing or a bad thing.

But personally, I wouldn't trust my kid to a Zer0 run program even if it were rated a first class tiddlywinks school. :roll:
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Mike said:
Hitler initiated a program to indoctrinate kids. It worked wonderfully well. Several of his High Ranking SS Officers went through his "schools".

The whole program's being suspect depends on what and how they are taught. No one can look at this from afar and say it is a good thing or a bad thing.

But personally, I wouldn't trust my kid to a Zer0 run program even if it were rated a first class tiddlywinks school. :roll:

You need to get new tinfoil... :shock:

These Police Cadet and Law Enforcement Junior programs have been around longer than I can remember...The same with Reserve Officer programs....

The National Civilian Community Corps was started by Bush # 1....

GW was the one that called for in his 2006 State of the Union Address the creation of a Civilian Response Corps for which he asked for $260 Million to fund...Congress ended up giving him $75 million...
Now the military commanders in the mideast are asking for its expansion and much more use of civilians to win over the minds and hearts of the Afghans- which the military will never be able to do....
 

Mike

Well-known member
Now the military commanders in the mideast are asking for its expansion and much more use of civilians to win over the minds and hearts of the Afghans

And this will be 14 year old kids? :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
reader (the Second) said:
Seriously, does no one other than me think that a Canadian posting paranoid America is doomed posts around the clock might in fact be an agent provocateur of the Chinese or Russians? :wink:

It's an odd hobby to have chosen otherwise, to spend all your day reading far right conspiracy blogs and websites and trying to incite a few ranchers.

Does anyone else think that hypocrit has passed over the line into bizarro recently?

I just heard about a cat lady here and I think our cousin in the far north is the equivalent. His trailer is filled with the excrement of 1000 conspiracy theories lol.

What conspiracy theories are you talking about. OT says these programs have been going on for years.

Do you not believe him?
 

Mike

Well-known member
Next thing you know, there will be a thing called "Mandatory Volunteers". :lol:
The commission will be tasked with exploring a number of topics, including "whether a workable, fair and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed and how such a requirement could be implemented in a manner that would strengthen the social fabric of the nation."
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
It's an odd hobby to have chosen otherwise, to spend all your day reading far right conspiracy blogs and websites and trying to incite a few ranchers.

I didn't know the NYTimes was a far right conspiracy blog, but, if you say so.

But I'm still not sure if I agree with this program. We've got liberals calling for gun bans, while watching kids as young as 14 being trained in dealing with terrorists.

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hopalong

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
Mike said:
Hitler initiated a program to indoctrinate kids. It worked wonderfully well. Several of his High Ranking SS Officers went through his "schools".

The whole program's being suspect depends on what and how they are taught. No one can look at this from afar and say it is a good thing or a bad thing.

But personally, I wouldn't trust my kid to a Zer0 run program even if it were rated a first class tiddlywinks school. :roll:

You need to get new tinfoil... :shock:

These Police Cadet and Law Enforcement Junior programs have been around longer than I can remember...The same with Reserve Officer programs....

The National Civilian Community Corps was started by Bush # 1....

GW was the one that called for in his 2006 State of the Union Address the creation of a Civilian Response Corps for which he asked for $260 Million to fund...Congress ended up giving him $75 million...
Now the military commanders in the mideast are asking for its expansion and much more use of civilians to win over the minds and hearts of the Afghans- which the military will never be able to do....[/quote
]

Half the time you can't remember what you said 10 minutes ago so that is no big recommendation!

How old do you have to be for Police Cadets anyway?


What does the civilian response corps have to do with scouts being trained in para military exercises?? Eh oldtimer?

The Civilian Response Corps is a program of the United States Department of State, Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS). It is expected to be a group of federal employees and volunteers from the private sector and state and local governments, who will be trained and equipped to deploy rapidly to countries in crisis or emerging from conflict, in order to provide reconstruction and stabilization assistance.

The assistance is partly humanitarian, and partly to prevent failed states from becoming "havens" for terrorist groups or otherwise threaten the security of the United States.




Contents [hide]
1 Size
2 Composition
3 Pilot program
4 References
5 External links



[edit] Size

President Bush has requested $248.6 million in Fiscal Year 2009 budget for the Civilian Stabilization Initiative (CSI), which includes the Civilian Response Corps. If fully funded, CSI will:

Create 250 full-time positions for members of the Active component of the Civilian Response Corps across the eight participating U.S. departments and agencies. These “first responders” are experts who can deploy to a crisis with as little as 48 hours’ notice.
Train 2,000 Standby members of the Civilian Response Corps in the same eight departments and agencies. These are current federal employees who volunteer to undertake additional training and to be available to serve in stabilization missions in case of need. Standby Members are deployable within 30 days for up to 180 days.
Recruit and train 2,000 Reserve members of the Civilian Response Corps: volunteers from the private sector and state and local governments who will bring additional skills and capabilities that do not exist in sufficient quantities in the federal government, such as police officers, city administrators, and health officials.
In the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2008[1] Congress provided up to $75 million in initial funding for the Active and Standby components of the Civilian Response Corps.


No one U.S. agency has the full range of skills needed to undertake effective reconstruction and stabilization operations. That is why the Civilian Response Corps is an interagency body that will promote “whole of government” planning and implementation of such missions with members in the Departments of State, Agriculture, Commerce, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Justice, and Treasury, as well as the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Participants will be diplomats, development specialists, public health officials, law enforcement and corrections officers, engineers, economists, lawyers, public administrators, agronomists and others – offering the full range of skills needed to help fragile states restore stability and the rule of law, and achieve economic recovery and sustainable growth as quickly as possible.[edit] Pilot program
The U.S. Department of State's Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization (S/CRS) coordinates the Civilian Response Corps and has developed pilot groups of Active and Standby members who have deployed to Sudan, Chad, Haiti, Lebanon, Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan to assist with conflict prevention and mitigation.

The State Department coordinates with the Secretary of Defense to harmonize civilian and military activities.

Gonna be sending these scouts to Iraq, Sudan, etc etc etc ??
Eh oldtiimer?
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
IMPERIAL, Calif. — Ten minutes into arrant mayhem in this town near the Mexican border, and the gunman, a disgruntled Iraq war veteran, has already taken out two people, one slumped in his desk, the other covered in blood on the floor.

Of course this "threat" fits in with the DHS Right wing extremist report.

Nice! Teaching the kids that veterans are a threat!
 
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Anonymous

Guest
hypocritexposer said:
IMPERIAL, Calif. — Ten minutes into arrant mayhem in this town near the Mexican border, and the gunman, a disgruntled Iraq war veteran, has already taken out two people, one slumped in his desk, the other covered in blood on the floor.

Of course this "threat" fits in with the DHS Right wing extremist report.

Nice! Teaching the kids that veterans are a threat!


No different than the warnings and findings that came out with the return of the Vietnam Vets after problems began to occur....Altho now the science has a better knowledge of PTSD- and the resulting long term effects, especially of multiple and prolonged tours in combat zones....



US soldier shoots dead five comrades in Iraq

Jenny Booth
A US soldier has shot dead five of his comrades at a military base in Baghdad today.

At least two others were wounded when the soldier opened fire at around 2pm local time at Camp Liberty, a sprawling installation next to the airport.

The CNN and MSNBC television networks reported that the soldier turned his gun on himself, but apparently he did not die.

“The shooter is a US soldier and he is in custody,” said Marine Corps Lieutenant Tom Garnett, a US military spokesman.



Symptoms of PTSD vary, but can include sleeplessness, nightmares, hyper vigilance, depression, and in some of the rarer cases, violent behavior. An army study last year showed troops on a third or fourth deployment are twice as likely to develop PTSD.


Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told Congress today that the shooting shows clearly that more needs to be done.

"The stress of multiple deployments, and the institutional pressure real or imagined, is driving some people to either leave the service or take their own lives," Mullen said. "It can also drive them to hurt others as this week's tragic shooting in Baghdad appears to have confirmed.
 

hopalong

Well-known member
Oldtimer said:
hypocritexposer said:
IMPERIAL, Calif. — Ten minutes into arrant mayhem in this town near the Mexican border, and the gunman, a disgruntled Iraq war veteran, has already taken out two people, one slumped in his desk, the other covered in blood on the floor.

Of course this "threat" fits in with the DHS Right wing extremist report.

Nice! Teaching the kids that veterans are a threat!


No different than the warnings and findings that came out with the return of the Vietnam Vets after problems began to occur....Altho now the science has a better knowledge of PTSD- and the resulting long term effects, especially of multiple and prolonged tours in combat zones....



US soldier shoots dead five comrades in Iraq

Jenny Booth
A US soldier has shot dead five of his comrades at a military base in Baghdad today.

At least two others were wounded when the soldier opened fire at around 2pm local time at Camp Liberty, a sprawling installation next to the airport.

The CNN and MSNBC television networks reported that the soldier turned his gun on himself, but apparently he did not die.

“The shooter is a US soldier and he is in custody,” said Marine Corps Lieutenant Tom Garnett, a US military spokesman.



Symptoms of PTSD vary, but can include sleeplessness, nightmares, hyper vigilance, depression, and in some of the rarer cases, violent behavior. An army study last year showed troops on a third or fourth deployment are twice as likely to develop PTSD.


Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff told Congress today that the shooting shows clearly that more needs to be done.

"The stress of multiple deployments, and the institutional pressure real or imagined, is driving some people to either leave the service or take their own lives," Mullen said. "It can also drive them to hurt others as this week's tragic shooting in Baghdad appears to have confirmed.

And training 14 yr olds to is going to solve the problem?

You have still failed to adress the question I asked in the other post.

What does the civilian response corps have to do with scouts being trained in para military exercises?? Eh oldtimer?
 

hopalong

Well-known member
Bullhauler said:
You sure screwed up your quote that time hoppy. Maybe you better have larrry come back and fix it for you.

Too bad you can't comprehend it Crapper, maybe if I type slower for you next time!
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
It's almost like they are trying to desenitize the children to acts of "man-made disasters"

Here's a story on a FEMA coloring book, that was pulled after parents complained about pictures of the WTC on fire with planes flying into the second tower.

The media doesn't even show the real thing for fear of upsetting adults, and they put it in coloring books. What are they thinking?

MOBILE, Ala. - A page showing fire, severe weather, and flooding, all disasters that can have an impact on a family, especially children. All of these disasters were featured in a coloring book on the Federal Emergency Management Agency's website, designed to help children cope with disasters.

But one page has parents taking the colors away. It's an illustration of the World Trade Center Towers in New York. One of the towers has smoke coming out of it while a plane looks to be heading towards the other.
http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/news/ParentsUpsetOverFEMAColoringBook

FEMA_Coloring_Bookf13679b8-88fb-40f.jpg
 
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Anonymous

Guest
Your tinfoil is burning your brain.......Law Enforcement- and the Boy Scouts have teamed up with Explorer programs for years....Do a google search on law enforcement exporer programs and you will find 100's...

Heres one:

http://www.ci.pasadena.ca.us/police/Youth%20Programs/New_Explorer_Program.asp

And it and some of the Jr. Cadet programs are a step by step- situation where the youth advance by age and training-- and are not involved in the combat situations training until they are in the advanced groups....

And yes- I believe youths should be trained in the safe and legal use of firearms- and the responsibilities that come with the use of those firearms/weapons....

I imagine that doesn't fit with some of the "Bubbas" on heres thinking that you should give a kid a gun for his 6th birthday and kick his arse out the door coon hunting...But I'm very happy to see our Federal law enforcement agencies getting more involved with this long running very good program....
 

hypocritexposer

Well-known member
Gun safety is a little different than being trained to point assault weapons at a "disgruntled veteran" or a suicide bomber.

But hey, if you're all for it, by all means go to it.
 
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Anonymous

Guest
hypocritexposer said:
Gun safety is a little different than being trained to point assault weapons at a "disgruntled veteran" or a suicide bomber.

But hey, if you're all for it, by all means go to it.

Believe it or not--but when you get out in the real world, thats what Law Enforcement have to do- and sadly much more often now than years ago...
 
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